Sell Anywhere!
Don’t Miss out on the Trend That Is Shaping E-commerce — Integrate a POS System into Your Online Store.
In this constantly evolving technologic age it’s easy to get used to a convenient and simple life, but as a business, keeping step with current trends can make us feel like we need to own the most up-to-date apps and it is a constant struggle to stay ahead of the curve.
But every so often we suddenly fall in love old-fashioned things that our grand-parents used to use, such as traditional shaving kits or listening to vinyl records. In short, we find ourselves nostalgic for previous generations, and it’s almost as if we’re trapped between two time periods. The trick is in adopting old-fashioned covered products but maintaining a high-tech functionality.
Soon or later we all succumb to the influences of our environments, and like any trend this behavior has natural consequences. The sooner you adapt, the easier it is to thrive and the more respect you gain from others.
Ecommerce is no exception.
What old-fashioned but high-tech methods can you provide within your own online store? To begin, try to start selling OFFLINE and integrate a POS system into your business strategy.
What Does POS Stand For?
POS (point of sales) systems are a mixture of hardware and software that allows merchants to make transactions independently from the actual location of their store. Sales can be provided at the street market, physical store, on the metro, wherever you can imagine, and can be easily paid via smartphones, watches, tablets and classic credit cards.
Top POS systems do more than process sales and offer the ability for effortless payments. Integrating them comes along with other capabilities such as:
- inventory management
- staff management and task automation
- supplier records
- customer data gathering
- personalizing with loyalty programmes
- sale reporting and other features that make easier to run and grow business.
What’s Different About Selling Offline Nowadays?
One important thing must be said — selling offline as a trend of the future is not the same as it was a decade ago. While the main focus was given to logistics — how many, when and what inventory to put into the store — future physical marketplaces concentrate primarily on the customers.
Retailers must offer a compelling unique customer experience to give customers a reason to return to their online store. This creates an opportunity to get in physical touch with the products and the brand. Selling offline takes this role perfectly while at the same time helps to gain new customers and retain the current ones.
There are some pitfalls in selling offline such as higher setup and running costs so it’s a good idea to calculate first whether your business is ready for such growth. On the contrary, a big part of marketing budget can be saved by affording instant access, meeting customers, and having physical visibility. Furthermore, other inconveniences can be easily solved by using POS systems as mentioned above.
The biggest revolution in selling offline compared to the past lays in the payment methods. This is why many online stores have exchanged the old-fashioned cash registers for cloud-based systems in mobile device that facilitates payments and monitors your customers at the same time. The receipts no longer need to be printed out and are sent to customers digitally. All your sales data (from both online and offline sales) are collected, giving you a comprehensive outlook of your overall business.
With integrating POS systems, you can also sell in flea markets, festivals and exhibitions without losing an overview of your performance.
Why Is The Payment So Critical?
Because smartphones will replace traditional payment systems by 2020, according to the Pew Research Center survey. Customers are getting used to paying by their phone or mobile devices. As of now 68% of US adults own a smartphone and many use it as their main shopping accessory.
What Else You Should Take Into Account When Considering Selling Offline?
Let’s list the main purpose of traditional brick-and-mortar stores and the next steps should give you a seamless idea of where POS comes into play. Combinations of offline and online stores are a great idea for many retailers! Even a small physical shop is good enough to serve as a:
- Drop-off point
- Showroom
- Fitting room
- Tangible expression of brand identity
When you (or your employee) are in physical contact with your customers daily, there’s no better way to meet their expectations. Conversing with them, giving advice, or tending to their needs helps facilitate customer loyalty. Ask about their opinions, what they like and dislike about your products, and fill the gaps in your knowledge in order improve your business model.
People love when they can touch and smell the products before they purchase them, and a lot can be said about the sort of atmosphere a physical store can provide. These are all the components that lead a potential customer to fall in love with your brand.
So, Do You Think Selling Offline Can Be Your Next Business Step?
Start Working On These Areas
1. Find a Great Location
When you’re searching for the suitable place for your store, in terms of both city and location consider this criteria: visibility of your store and high traffic. Should it be located at the street or in the shopping mall? Logically it should be where more people tend to congregate. Look for places that offer a lot of storefront space if possible. You can even open more stores and get closer to your current customers. They’ll surely be happy to have more drop-off points and save money on their deliveries (that can be spent in your store on other things!).
2. Design And Strengthen Brand Identity
When you have chosen the location, think about the interior design. Don’t follow the best practices because it may happen that every other merchant does the same and you end up with featureless store vision. Instead, be authentic! Be different, memorable and attractive for your targets. It’s no shame to ask some designer to help you with that as well.
If you expect really high traffic you can use the space to manage the flow. Create a spot for dropping-off the products while other visitors can browse around. This organizes work within the store and reduces queues.
3. Employ Your Brand’s Advocate
If you don’t plan to work in your store as an employee or you don’t plan to be on-site, make sure your employees have enough knowledge and information about your products, and ideally a passion for selling them. Proud and happy employees are very effective as a source of advertising so pay attention to increase your company’s cohesiveness and help them unite.
4. Choose A POS System That Makes It All Easier
The hot trend that is changing eCommerce and uniting it — integrating POS systems — also helps you bridge markets and partners you would otherwise miss out on. Merchants are constantly increasing the use of SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions and tech companies are always competing with one another. The eCommerce environment is ready to support business growth in this sense and here is a list of services you should be aware of:
Foremost, find out if the shopping platform you use already provides a POS connection. Shopify and Lightspeed already support scaling up your selling throughout omnichannels, including the sales. They provide their customers with many educational materials.
Vend is a system that provides all-in-one services for helping to expand your physical store. It helps to manage inventory systems, delivers payments, opens an online store, and offers customer loyalty incentives and basic analytics. It works on iPad, Mac & PC and even offline.
There are more good services dealing with POS systems that ensure payments, inventories, reports and loyalty programs, and we looked at some of the best and most popular:
- Square (awarded by Gold award from Top Ten Reviews)
- ShopKeep (best for retails)
- Bindo
- Clover
- Erply
- Springboard
- Veeqo
- Quetzal
- SalesVU
Summary
There is something to be said for going back to basics, whether it be through utilizing flea markets or adopting a POS system. Simply put, this is trading in its traditional form — face to face, from seller to buyer. And while this hasn’t disappeared with the boom of eCommerce, it’s important to remember the role it plays.
As the amount of virtual online stores has dramatically increased and becoming a popular channel for consumers, as human beings we still desire that contact with another person. People still want to buy online but they want to be sure about what they’re buying. Let them see, touch, or try the products, and always be on hand to advise and talk to them. If your store is ready to grow in this way, don’t wait any longer. Find an appropriate location, select a good POS system, and rank among the pioneers of selling offline successfully.
